5. Would you like to meet him outside the institution? (cont.)

If he were to reach their first,he would stay there and wait for me.If I were to reach there first, I would stay there and wait for him. I then left my house in the last hours of the night, in fear that the Quraysh may find out about our departure. Hence, we met at Ya’juj before dawn and set off until we reached al-Hada to find ‘Amr bin al-‘Aas on his riding beast. He said to us, “Welcome! Where are you headed?” We said, “And what has made you come out?” He asked us in reply, “Well, what has made you come out?” “Our desire to enter into Islam and to follow Muhammad”, we replied. He said, “Well, this is also what made me leave.” Thus, we accompanied each other until we entered Madinah. We made our rides kneel down in a stony area. The Messenger of Allah  was then informed about us. He became joyful upon hearing the news. I then wore the best clothes I had and made my way to the Messenger of Allah – may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him. On my way, my brother met me and said, “Hurry up! For the Messenger of Allah  has been informed about you and he is very happy at your advent. He is waiting for you.” We began to walk fast. I saw the Messenger of Allah  and walked towards him. When he saw me from a distance, he smiled. He continued smiling at me until I finally reached him. I then Hold the stick from the middle greeted him and he greeted me back very cheerfully. I said, “I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship but Allah, and that you are the Messenger of Allah.” He said, ‘Praise be to Allah Who has guided you. I always knew you were intelligent. I had always wished that your intelligence would lead you to your own good.” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, I know that I used to take part in all the hardships you had to endure, as I was stubbornly against the truth. Pray to Allah that He forgives me!” The Prophet  replied, “Islam wipes out all that precedes it.” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, in that case, please, ask for my forgiveness.” He then prayed for me, “O Allah! Forgive Khalid bin al-Walid for all his wrongdoings, in diverting people away from Allah’s path!’” Thereafter, Khalid became one of the heads of this religion. Yet, his acceptance of Islam was due to an indirect message that reached him from the Messenger of Allah . How persevering and wise he was! Let us then adopt these skills in affecting people. If you were to see a person selling cigarettes in his shop and you wanted to caution him, praise his shop and its cleanliness first, and pray for increased blessings in his profit.Then you should caution him with respect to earning halaal income, so that he realises that you did not look at him negatively. Rather, you held the stick from the middle. Hold the stick from the middle Be clever! Look for whatever good you can find in a person in comparison to which his bad would seem insignificant.Think good of others, until they recognise your sense of justice towards them and love you more. In brief… When people realise that we pay attention to their good actions just as we pay attention to their bad actions, they appreciate our advice. Hold the stick from the middle (34) Make it easy to rectify a fault Errors that people make vary. Some are huge while others are small. Irrespective of the magnitude of the errors, it is possible to rectify them all. Although, it might not be possible to completely rectify the bad consequences of an error, it is still possible to rectify a lot. Many people fail to rectify their faults since they doubt their own ability to rectify. Sometimes, the way we deal with others’ faults happens to be part of the fault itself. For instance, if my son were to err, I may blame and belittle him, and magnify his fault so much that he may start thinking that he has fallen into a well out of which there is no escape! Hence, he loses hope in any chance of rectification, and therefore remains at fault. My wife may fall into an error, or my friend, and if you make him realise that he has indeed erred, but there is a way out, rectification is easy, and to return to the truth is better than persisting on falsehood, this would prove to be helpful in the rectification process. A man came to the Prophet  to give him the oath of allegiance on migration. He said, “I have come to give you the oath of allegiance on migration, and I have left my parents weeping.” The Prophet  was neither harsh towards him, nor did he belittle his action, nor demean his intelligence.